Roving Reporter: Peace, Freedom Are Among Items On Students' Minds

Have you ever wished that you had the opportunity to change something in the world?

If you have, you are no doubt like many people who wish they had the power to correct one situation or another that is causing problems either in the United States or some other corner of the world.

Neighbors Roving Reporter-Photographer recently visited Lehighton High School and asked eight seniors what they would change in the world if they had the chance. Several of the students also listed items that they would like to see stay the same.

Michele Green would make certain that the threat of nuclear war would be ended. "I would ask that the world be at peace with no worries of nuclear war," she said, "It is a big problem that should be eliminated."

Green noted that she would also stop hijackings at airports and added that she would like to see the freedoms that American people enjoy stay intact.

Diane Shoenberger decided that she would end world hunger, but noted that the job would be difficult to accomplish.

"I would free the world from hunger and starvation, but it would be a big task," she said.

Butch Hartman was another student who would like to free the world of a major problem, but like Shoenberger he realizes that it would be difficult to pull off.

"I would like to have a cure for all diseases such as cancer," he said. "It would, however, take a lot of research and a lot of laboratory work would have to go into it."

Hartman said he would also like to make every country in the world a democratic state such as the United States.

For Susan Graver, the most important thing that she would do for the world would be to give it more cultural exchange between people and countries.

"If young people of today learn more about other countries, making decisions in the future will be easier and we will know more about other people," she said.

Graver said she would also like to give the people of the world the ability to see things through the eyes of a child. "I would like people to keep the attitudes of children. When you look at things through the eyes of children, things don't seem so bad."

Terry Haberman would like to see more patriotism from United States citizens. "People have to believe in the president," he said, "People are always cutting down President Reagan and I like him."

Haberman said he feels more patriotism is needed on all levels of government in the country and added that people should not have a negative attitude. "People like to put everything down and we have the best policy in the world."

Mike Wehr felt that he could make the world a better place if he could make people change their attitudes about themselves.

"I would change people's attitudes towards themselves. They should feel happy more and not bad." Wehr also noted that better attitudes would cut down on world problems and added that he would keep the Christmas spirit all year around.

"I would keep the Christmas spirit throughout the whole year, and not just on holidays," he said.

According to Cathy Mriss, an improvement in the condition of the world would center around education.

"We should have a stronger educational system," she said, "It should be stronger and more challenging." Mriss said she would improve the system by providing harder classes and making certain that students are pushed harder in the classroom.

Sean McWilliams said he would try to make the world a better place by cutting down on the waste of government funds. He said the misuse of funds is a major problem with the Unites States government and cited military funds as one example.